Ása Helga Hjörleifsdóttir

Also known as: Ása Hjörleifsdóttir
• Email
  asahjorleifs@gmail.com

Ása Hjörleifsdóttir is an Icelandic writer and director, and a graduate of the Columbia University Film MFA program. She was born in 1984 in Reykjavík, but has spent most of her life outside her native Iceland - in England, France, Canada and the United States. Ása holds a BA in Comparative Literature from the University of Iceland and the Sorbonne - Paris IV University. After graduating she worked as guest coordinator for the Reykjavík International Film Festival, a freelance book and film critic for various publications as well as the Icelandic National Radio. She recently taught Screenwriting at the Columbia University Undergraduate Film Department.

Ása has written, directed and edited a number of short films, most notably her Columbia thesis film Ástarsaga. Ástarsaga received Columbia University Faculty Honors, has been presold to the Icelandic National Broadcasting Service, and recently received the Jury’s Special Mention Award at the 2012 Reykjavík International Film Festival. It has furthermore been selected for the international competition at the prestigious Clermont-Ferrand Short Film Festival in 2013. Ása is currently in development with her first feature film, The Swan, an adaptation of the critically acclaimed Icelandic novel by Guðbergur Bergsson. The project has been green-lit for script development by the Iceland Film Fund.

Ása was chosen for the Nordic Film Fund’s “New Nordic Talents” program in September 2012, and the upcoming Berlinale Talent Campus, in February 2013.